Ruja Ignatova, a fugitive who founded OneCoin which turned into a $4 billion scam, will now be facing her brother Konstantin Ignatov who has agreed to testify in a settlement case against her. The brother agreed to a deal that would see him dismissed from a civil litigation that was targetting the scam.
Ignatov agreed to stand against his sister, if the court goes to trial and become a witness against OneCoin scam and his sister. The brother also agreed to join investors on their lawsuit against the firm and also gave his word that he would testify against her, when the case goes to trial.
Ignatov’s involvement in Onecoin
Ignatov was arrested in March 2019 for his involvement with the OneCoin scam that had been in operations for years, taking investors money with a promise of huge profits. After his arrest, Ignatov admitted to his involvement in the scam, by being the personal assistant of one of its founders and also her brother.
In October 2019, he plead guilty to charges leveled against him and the cryptocurrency scam they were running. He also started cooperating with authorities and was instrumental in outing the involvement of Phoenix Thoroughbreds’ owner Amer Abdulaziz Salman, who he said was responsible for money laundering in the firm.
Laundered over $400 million from clients
Ignatov’s sentencing is scheduled for November where, if convicted, he faces up to 91 years in prison. However, he has been negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors, for his testimony against a former colleague, Mark Scott, who was the legal advisor of the scam. Scott is accused of having laundered over $400 million from his clients.
This will not the first time Ignatov has offered to testify against his sister. In an earlier trial, he testified about her sisters and gave details surrounding her disappearance. In that testament, he indicated that her sister had become paranoid about critics of OneCoin, who she called haters. He also indicated that she was worried about being ousted by one of her close allies to FBI, and that was when she disappeared.
